The adsorption of twenty-two endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and
pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) to ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF)
and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes was investigated using 24-hour bottle tests. Two
natural waters (Lake Ontario water and effluent from a membrane bioreactor (MBR)) and
one laboratory-grade water (Milli-Q® water) were examined in order to determine the
influence of organic matter on compound adsorption to membranes. Adsorption was
most influenced by compound log K<sub>ow</sub>, a measure of hydrophobicity, and water
solubility. Hydrophobic adsorption appears to be the main mechanism responsible for
EDC and PhAC adsorption. Adsorption was highest with the UF membrane followed by
the NF and RO membranes. Adsorption was also affected by membrane pure water
permeability (PWP), which gives an indication of the porosity of a membrane. It is
proposed that a more porous membrane provides a larger surface area which results in
more available membrane adsorption sites. Finally, in order to avoid masking the
influence of water matrix on adsorption due to differences in analytical sample
recoveries, it was determined that the use of compounds with surrogates would provide
the most accurate investigation of the influence of water matrix on adsorption. Includes 30 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 430 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 16 |
| Published : | 03/01/2007 |
